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Posts Tagged ‘datacard’

Smarter EPDM Drop Lists Using SQL

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Out of the box SolidWorks Enterprise PDM gives you the ability to populate your drop lists based on SQL query results. I use this functionality all the time to give my users a list of qualified suppliers from a purchasing database, lists of users in a specified group, choices of product type, etc.

The limitation is that these queries are all based off of constant values. These queries are run by the EPDM server on a predefined interval, and the results are stored in the EPDM database. This method is fast, but it eliminates the ability to populate the lists based on properties of the file itself.

Granted with EPDM’s “Controlled by variable” option,

you can change the query based on one other variable, but if you want to use more than one variable or the file’s physical properties, PigeonHole makes the process very easy.

This video gives a quick demonstration showing how.

Tags: datacard, Jeff Sweeney, PigeonHole, SQL
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Smarter Droplists with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM

Friday, April 5th, 2013

Today I was doing some consulting work for a SolidWorks Enterprise PDM customer of another VAR. Look at this screen shot of the number of lists they were using for their data cards. Each of their customers have their own list of cities, countries, contacts…it’s very nice because their data cards are very accurate -great for searching!

Lots of lists!…this is just what I was able to fit on the screen, they have at least twice this many. Takes effort to maintain, and their card logic is rather gruesome.

Rather hard to set up, but this example at least it can be done because EPDM’s droplists can be populated dependent on the value of one other variable. There are some scenarios that cannot solved with EPDM lists on a single card. As an example, imagine you made gates and the width of the gate is dependent on two (or more) variables. [Perhaps your model "GXT" gate comes in two widths in the aluminum version and three widths in the wood version; but the "JSS" model comes in four widths per aluminum and wood, and there is a steel version too!]

I run into these issues often, and the solution is always to find another solution, have weaker data cards, deal with incomplete searches and reports, or I write an add-in to accomplish what they are looking for.

After years of creating a company specific add-ins that I had to write over and over, I decided to create an add-in that could be used by anyone.

The goals:

Make the interface flexible enough that it could work for any company
Not have to know SQL to build the logic for the lists.

Here is a video of the final product.

As you can see from this video, it is easy to setup and does quite a bit more than the original goals. (It is hard to stop, once you get going!) I’ll talk about the additional features in future blog entries, or you can go through all the videos tagged: “PigeonHole” in the 3DVision YouTube channel.

Tags: datacard, droplist, Jeff Sweeney, PigeonHole
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | 5 Comments »

Display a graphical history on your data card

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

I thought the idea of putting an image of the workflow on a SolidWorks Enterprise PDM data card was rather clever. Yesterday, I received an email from a customer in Dayton who has taken the concept one step further:

They put data card controls on top of the image. As files go through transitions, the transition puts the values into the controls. Users can now quickly see the history of the file in a nice graphical form.

You don’t have control over the order of objects on a data card, but it appears a bitmap is always on the bottom, -which in this case is exactly what you want.

Tags: administration, card design, datacard, Jeff Sweeney
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | No Comments »

Include the file’s workflow in its data card

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

Recently I saw a SolidWorks Enterprise PDM data card similar to this one created by one of our customers in Indiana:

At the bottom of their data cards, they include a [static] picture of the file’s workflow. I thought it was a rather clever idea.

Tags: administration, datacard, Jeff Sweeney
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | No Comments »

Put the version number on your EPDM datacard

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Editor’s Note: Be sure to read all the comments below before deciding if you wish to implement this concept.

Would you like to have the version number of your file on your SolidWorks Enterprise PDM datacard? The Engineering Data Specialist Man is here to show you how to do it!

You can do it very easily with Dispatch. (If you don’t have Dispatch already installed in your EPDM system, follow the Dispatch link.)

After Dispatch is installed, choose to administrate:

At the ”Administrate Actions” window, choose to add a new action. Then set up the action as shown below.

Click on the “Conditions…” button next to the “During check out” and set the dialog this way:

This means that this dispatch action will run any time just before a file is checked in, for all files. (Change the path value if you don’t want it for all files.)

Yup, you can find the “check in” trigger under the “check out” trigger. Logical eh?

As you can see from the Commands list, it takes three commands to make this work.

First click “Add” and choose “For all documents”

Again click “Add”, and choose “Set Card Variables”, set the dialog like this:

Here we are setting the variable “Version” on the file’s card to the current version of the file and bumping the value by one. This adding is done at the bottom with the “add” function.

Now, click “Add” a third time and choose “End for all documents”. This will make Dispatch set the variable for all files.

That is all there is to the Dispatch setup. Now put a control on your datacard connected to the version variable and it will update automatically for you just before the file is checked in.

Tags: datacard, dispatch, Jeff Sweeney, variables
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | 2 Comments »

Group Members for your Datacard

Monday, June 11th, 2012

You’ve designed the perfect folder datacard for your SolidWorks Enterprise PDM setup. It is a great little folder card listing project due date, description and even have a nice little droplist for your users to pick the proper project manager.

But wait! You’ve noticed there is no way to get a list of just your project managers! What’s a girl to do?!

List Properties

The solution is easy with Engineering Data Specialist Man! Create a new list, make it a SQL query and enter in this SQL statement:

SELECT Users.Username
FROM GroupMembers INNER JOIN
 Groups ON GroupMembers.GroupID = Groups.GroupID INNER JOIN
 Users ON GroupMembers.UserID = Users.UserID
WHERE (Groups.Groupname = 'Engineers') AND (Users.Enabled = 1)

Now, assuming you have assigned your project managers on the root level, you have a list for your card that will update as your project managers come and go.

Tags: datacard, Jeff Sweeney, SQL
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | No Comments »

Search for Dimensions in EPDM

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Great Aunt Eleanor can do many amazing things. She can name and describe all RAID configurations, she can rewire an HDMI connection so her old black and white movies will be black and white again (she curses Ted Turner the entire time) and apparently she is the lead elf in her WOW guild…but she can’t cook. The lady can [and has] burnt water. Thus apparently it would be logical for her to buy an Indian restaurant.

The nice thing about Indian dishes is that they are pretty easy. Every thing is brown, crazy spicy and all the food is cut up into simple hexahedrons. The only thing different about the hexahedrons is their length, width and height.

Great Aunt Eleanor has decided she wants to SolidWorks Enterprise PDM to be able to store her food cutting guides. She wants to be able to enter in a few dimensions in a search window and have EPDM return all the food pieces that meet the search criteria. This is her datacard:

Pretty nice, though since Great Aunt Eleanor is always playing with the sizes, she wants to link the dimensions of her SolidWorks models to the datacard. So if the food size changes, the datacard updates automatically.

Here is how I linked her dimensions to the datacard values.

I created the three custom file properties (height, width, length), then for value, I used this format: “Dimension Name@Sketch Name@File Name”. I usually find it easier to click in the “Value/Text Expression” column and then click on the dimension. SolidWorks build the required format for you. (Note: the dimension names were renamed by me, typically they will have a “D1″, “D2″ type format.)

Now your file properties update as the dimensions update, all that is left is to connect your EPDM variables to your file properties, and thus as your model dimension change, your EPDM database updates automatically!

Next Great Aunt Eleanor stored this file as a SolidWorks template, so when she comes up with a new food type, (perhaps something brown-ier?) she starts with the template and the settings already to go.

Another tip, make the controls in the datacard read-only, that way they only way they are updated is via changing the SolidWorks model.

Now Great Aunt Eleanor can quickly use EPDM to search for the exact size of food she needs.

Tags: datacard, dimension, drawings, EPDM, Jeff Sweeney
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | 1 Comment »

EPDM maintain your Best Practices

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Several years ago I wrote a presentation “How to write a best practice document”. I have given this presentation to several user groups and even twice at SolidWorks World. In the presentation, I discuss different mediums to use when writing and maintaining the document. Word processors, wikis and Docbook are the three main tools I recommend.

A few days ago a customer asked if SolidWorks Enterprise PDM would be a good tool to store his best practice document. Blew me away. I had never thought of a PDM being Best Practice repository, but it is perfect!

For a best practice document to be successful:

Users need to be able to quickly find the information they are looking for
It has to be easy to maintain and keep current

Things PDM does for you!

What if…instead of creating a big long document that will be hard to read, navigate and maintain, you created a bunch of little .avi files demonstrating your best practices? [I will not do the voice overs, stop asking.] To make finding them easier, create a special “Best Practice” datacard and place it in your best practices sub directory.

Don’t forget that you can watch avi files through the preview tab…(sound works too)

Obviously it doesn’t have to be only movie files, pictures (they really are worth a few hundred words), machining charts, internal memos, spreadsheets…can all be categorized in your datacard for quick access.

Tags: best practices, datacard, Jeff Sweeney
Posted in SolidWorks PDM | No Comments »

Auto Update Word Fields

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM’s datacards make it easy for you to put information from the datacard directly into your Microsoft Word document. Simply connect the datacard’s variable to the Word’s custom file property, then link a Word field to that custom property.

The problem is that Word does not automatically update fields when you open the file. (Excel will, why won’t Word?!) I know many people use some API code to automatically update the fields every time the document is opened (there is some sample code in the administration manual showing you exactly how to do this) but what if you don’t like to use API?

Wouldn’t it be nice if Word had a setting to automatically update the fields before you save the document? Unfortunately, as far as I can tell it doesn’t….but I may have the next best thing. In Word 2007 go to “Word Options” then at the bottom of the display section you should see:

[For Word 2003 look in the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Print tab. Hopefully someone out there can tell me where it is for Word 2010.] At least with this method all hard copies should be correct.

Going back to the API solution. If you put the field update code mentioned above in your “Normal.dotm” file, even files you created in the past will begin to automatically update –and as a bonus you will not be bothered to “Enable Macros” every time you open your documents.

Tags: datacard, Jeff Sweeney, Word
Posted in API, SolidWorks PDM | No Comments »